“An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents,” the regulations read.

Allowing Canadians to reject either “male” or “female,” it seems, would be a way around this issue.

Right now, the only way Canadians can change the gender listed on a passport or birth certificate is to undergo sexual reassignment surgery and submit proof to the government. That’s discriminatory, say trans activists, and it excludes a broad section of those who have changed their gender identity but do not wish to undergo surgery.

But not everyone is confident that the government will go ahead with the plan. NDP MP Dany Morin, the associate critic for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans issues, says he has “serious doubt that the Conservative government will actually go through with this.

“Australia is a leader on trans rights based on their non-discriminatory regulations, while Canada, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, clearly is not. Adopting in Canada a genderless option would be the ideal solution to make sure that trans people are not discriminated against in Canadian airports,” Morin says.

Introducing government documents that withhold a person’s gender would put Canada in a select group -- following only San Francisco and Australia. Both the state of California and the United Kingdom considered introducing such documents, but it was vetoed in California and has been lying on the order table in the UK. Sweden, on the other hand, recently went to the next level and created an entirely new gender-neutral pronoun: "hen."

The Canadian government, it seems, has no plans to create any new pronouns.